Morning Folks!!
I don't write this blog to report news tho at times I do. I don't use it for press releases fed to me by others in the industry for their benefit or mine. I don't take advertisements. I am beholden to no one but my thoughts, opinions and truly strong beliefs. It's truly "Rick's" Blog.
So I wrote the majority of the posts to be timeless. Even when I was promoting TRAFFIC I would make sure to include some pearls that had value.
I started RicksBlog.com in 2007. I can go year after year after year and find relevant posts that may have been written a decade ago but still are relevant and current and beneficial. I wrote it to stand the test of time and also be able to look back thru our history.
My blog is my life's book. I have touched on about everything I can think of. I wish I could include the posts I made for the 11 years before I had my blog. One of these days I may fire up my Gateway 2000 Pentium Tower from the 1990's and see what I can find.
Lots of things have been said about domain investing. I have the time stamps to prove I said it first. ;- ) That's one of the things I really love about the Internet from the very first days. It's in ink and it has a timestamp.
Point is I wrote this blog to be read from the beginning for it all to make sense. Hundreds and hundreds of different chapters addressing anything and everything concerning Domains, Business, History and Life itself. And that is what it is all about. LIFE!
Is your soul mortgaged by working for others and having them own your time or do you own your time outright? My last job was 34 years ago when I got fired for making too much money. Working for other people is fine on the way up, but hopefully today people have 2 tracks. A job and a business that can grow and allow you to quit that job and own your time. Own your life!
Why is life important to domaining? Because there is only a short period you can enjoy the fruits of your labors. It will take hundreds of years for the Internet to fully develop. We will all be dead much sooner than that. The key to it all is working smarter. You work smarter by learning from other people's mistakes and history.
And just as important than all of that: My blog is my diary and maybe my legacy. A public diary that I hope proves to be timeless and helps countless people from every walk of life to look at things in different ways and learn to dig deep to find true answers.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Just a few points if I may.
1. There was no aftermarket in 1995 or 1996. I and a literal handful of folks were the entire aftermarket that started in 1996 and 1997.
2. In 1995 very few people were online. Only 10% of businesses were online and many of them with just a holding page.
3. In 1995 not everyone had their own personal computer.
4. The average person had no idea what a domain name was.
5. Most businesses did not know what a domain name was.
6. There were no parking companies to monetize your traffic.
7. Many people did not believe there was such a thing as type in traffic and would refuse to pay even tho they made sales and money.
8. I was working in the blind. I had no technical experience. I had not even learned to cut and paste or FTP. What I had was a keen sense of business and understand that the adult world is consistently first in adopting new technology.
9. It cost $39.95/month to activate EACH domain name
10. Domains cost $100 per pop for 2 years after being totally FREE. I completely missed the FREE. So I got in too late RIGHT??
11. Since I was looking at 20 years before I would see great value, each domain was really $10,000.
12. There were NO TOOLS whatsoever.
13. Many of the folks that were domaining at the time and earlier bought domains that had no value. I had a different focus. They were techies. I was a businessman. I was a salesman. I was a marketing guy. I was a student of business and industry and the history of both.
14. I was a loner. Nobody understood what I was doing. I was just a fool according to them. There was nobody to reinforce what I was doing was not insane and might work. There was no support system.
15. There were no domain blogs. There were no chatrooms other than the one I opened in 2000. RicksBoard. That was the epicenter of a fledging industry.
16. There was no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter.
17. Online banking had just begun.
18. We did not have smart phones.
19. You could not get email on the phone until the Motorola Startac
20. I did not have a CLUE which way things would turn out. I had a hunch that I based on an assumption and took a RISK looking for a big reward. I KNEW it would take years if not decades for this to evolve.
I am sure I missed a few. But the point is, when you get on the merry-go-round of life and business, there is NO STARTING LINE!! Only FOOLS and IDIOTS think that way. If I were to have thought that way after domains were FREE just a few weeks before, I would not be writing this post today. I have no sympathy for those that wallow in self pity and only take shots to excuse their own very visible short-commings.
There are domains of value every single day of the week available. I NEVER EVER buy a domain trying to resell it the next day. As many have mentioned, have some patience! And as far as valuations go, the ONLY valuation that counts is YOURS! YOU are the only one that can pull the trigger on a sale. YOU are the only one that can determine your circumstance. And yeah, I get that you need to pay bills. But you can build a machine that stays WAY ahead of the steamroller if you work smart and not deal with that CIRCUMSTANCE!
There has been some great advice given here by many folks. They KNOW what they are talking about. Don’t argue with them. They are right, you are wrong. You need to rise to their level, they don’t need to come down to yours. We have all been there before as we climbed the ladder and WE know the difference.
Just remember, the smarter and harder you work, the luckier you will get.
“Luck is a residue of Hard Work.” Branch Rickey.
Don’t know who Branch Rickey is? Look him up. History is the #1 part of business. success imho.
Good luck and great fortune to all!
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz